Grandad found, but what was his previous service?

[DerekW]

I finally located some details of grandfather's army service, enlisted late 1915, aged 40+ but discharged 2 years later, medically unfit to continue...

On his attestation papers it is stated that previous service was "Lancs Fus, 12 years (05/05/01)".

Date quoted, being completion of service, indicates that he "joined the colours" aged 14/15.

Where can I investigate this earlier service?

[Stebie9173]

On the basis that he was in the Army approx 1889 to 1901, his service records for that period would be likely to be in the series WO97 at the NA. These are boxed, physical papers, and are styled as Attestation Papers.

Usually with the Attestation Papers are:

Attestation.

Medical Examination.

Casualty form.

Army history form.

There is a pretty good chance that these papers survive. Certainly, much better than WW1 Service Records.

The boxes contain a range of soldiers papers in alphabetical order (though the order within the boxes are likely to be "shuffled" by previous users)

You will need to search the NA Catalogue for the WO97/xxxxx document, bearing in mind you may need to "Browse from here" within the catalogue if the name is in the middle of a range, and that there may be "Supplementary" boxes to check as well.

Steve.

[steve fuller]

The 12 years service would have been 7 in the Regulars, 5 in reserves. Him joining at 14 was OK too - he would have been assigned the rank of "Boy"!! Lovely stuff. As Steveo says, worth looking in the WO97 as Ive found some Gems there & the pre war papers make lovely reading, especially when youre looking at a WW1 man who has a combined service of 30 odd years by the end!

[DerekW]

Many thanks to you both for the information, back to NA we go...

Regards

Derek